Commerce Unveils ‘Scale’ Tool to Tackle Supply Chain Risks – Source: www.databreachtoday.com

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New Tool Uses 40 Indicators to Provide In-Depth Diagnostic Analysis, Officials Say

Chris Riotta (@chrisriotta) •
September 10, 2024    

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Tuesday the launch of Scale, a new data tool that aims to analyze hundreds of industries and identify supply chain risks down to the component level.

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Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo described the tool as “impressive in its scope” and “massively comprehensive” during a supply chain summit co-hosted by the department and the Council on Foreign Relations. The tool assesses a wide range of factors affecting supply chains, according to Raimondo, including labor shortages, climate challenges, geopolitical tensions and other variables that create a “spider web of risk.”

Commerce has already used Scale to conduct an analysis on the expansion of artificial intelligence data centers. The tool uses over 40 indicators across three categories – geopolitical, logistical and technological – to provide in-depth diagnostic assessments of what’s driving risk across various industries, according to Grant Harris, assistant secretary of commerce for industry and analysis.

“This is a focus on structural and systemic risk,” Harris told the supply chain summit in Washington, D.C. “It will not tell us where disruptions are taking place or their real-time impacts.”

Instead, the tool is designed to address long-standing challenges surrounding federal oversight of supply chain security risks. Government watchdog reports have for years sounded the alarm on federal agencies that need to take urgent steps to address and manage supply chain risks, warning that “agencies lack the ability to understand and manage risk and reduce the likelihood that adverse events will occur without reasonable visibility and traceability into supply chains.”

The Commerce Department recently established the Supply Chain Center to develop Scale, as well as more proactive and strategic approaches to building resilience across critical industries, safeguarding against disruptions and enhancing long-term supply chain stability. Scale will not feature a publicly accessible database or platform due to “national security” concerns, according to Harris, though he added that Commerce will release some findings from the tool “in the coming weeks and months.”

Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An agency website says the first-of-its-kind supply chain center coalesced a team of industry experts and economists to use “advanced and customized commercial analytic tools for targeted scans of critical sectors.”

The center was also using automation “to identify potential signs of emerging risks” while building a cross-sectoral risk assessment framework, according to Commerce.